Uncategorized

The only thing bigger than the “ifs” surrounding the 2012-13 Warriors is the sense of optimism for the upcoming season. If Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry stay healthy, and if Mark Jackson matures into a legitimate NBA coach, the 2012-13 Warriors should be the best Warriors team in nearly two decades.

Last season, Mark Jackson promised the playoffs and no-excuse basketball. The Warriors missed the playoffs and relied on the usual excuses (injuries, youth, vengeful basketball gods) to explain away their failure. This year, it remains to be seen whether Jackson will be so boisterous in his promises. He has a much stronger roster than the one he lead last year but, as a result, the stakes are much higher if he fails to deliver. The rookie coach isn’t a rookie anymore, and another post-season miss may be Jackson’s last disappointment as the Warriors’ head coach.

Frederich Schiller once observed that “appearance rules the world.” Now that the pomp and circumstance of tightly controlled press releases and photo ops of the Warriors’ arena announcement have passed, the franchise is learning that these types of projects are magnets for critics — a demographic well represented in San Francisco, regardless of the issue. With one citizens advisory committee meeting already passed and three more scheduled for the month, the Warriors appear anxious to head off any appearance of local opposition to their plan.

When Warriors fans look to the future, no two positions hold more potential than the backcourt slots. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson haven’t started a game together yet, but the expectations for the young duo are lofty. While the future may be clear, the recent past has been unsettled. The The 2011-12 season saw the Warriors experiment with a variety of backcourt combinations as injuries, trades and tanking all took their toll. But despite the challenging circumstances, the Warriors guards generally exceeded expectations.

Rookie owner Joe Lacob learned first-hand that fans are often far more concerned with perception than substance. The retention of Robert Rowell, the repeat of some familiar empty promises at the trade deadline, and another year on the coaching carousel all gave the impression that it the new boss was the same as the old boss. The slight gains the Warriors made in the win column were overwhelmed by the perception that the team still carried a losing stench. The first sign of meaningful change came on the final day of the season with the hiring of Bob Myers. But Friday’s announcement was the game changer. Jerry West — arguably the single most respected NBA front office figure alive today, not to mention the logo of the game itself — is now a member of the Golden State Warriors. The substance of what he’s contributing will be important later, but what matters right now is perception. Suddenly, the Warriors are legitimate.

This past week the Warriors recorded three quality wins over playoff-caliber opponents — Dallas, Portland and Los Angeles. On Sunday evening, they fell to a listless Sacramento squad (albeit without a full strength Monta Ellis). The frustrating inconsistency that binds together the highs and lows of the Warriors season is the lingering question that hangs over this squad, and the most important issue confronting Joe Lacob this off-season. Is it a result of coaching, style of play, some single missing ingredient that can be added to the mix this summer? All of the above? Until the Warriors solve the conundrum of their split personality, they’ll remain a team capable of beating playoff teams, but not a playoff team themselves.

Back in the spring in 2007, as the Warriors were surging to their first playoff appearance in more than a decade, then-broadcast journalist (now-media magnate) Ravi Kapur and I started a humble little podcast called Warriorscast. We kept it running regularly for about 18 months, tracing the rise of the Warriors through the Dallas series (my favorite pod from that era was done live from the post-victory Arena parking lot), the disappointment of the Jazz series and the hope, then frustration of what followed a year later. When Davis left and Ellis went down, the pod topics and our day-job schedules both got a little heavy, so we put the pods on hold. Fast forward to November 2010: Warriors fans once again have a lot to talk about, so Ravi and I decided that it was time to start up another conversation.

Early August tends to be the slowest of slow periods for NBA news — and this year has lived up to the reputation. By any scale that matters, the departure of assistant coach Scott Roth for Toronto and D-League success story Anthony Tolliver for Minnesota are not changes of any particular note. In this summer of speculation, however, there are some conclusions that can be teased out of both moves.

As the Warriors continue to say goodbye to pieces of their past — Anthony Morrow, signing a $12 million offer sheet with the Nets, looks like the next to go — the Las Vegas Summer League should provide at least a small glimpse of the team’s future. All eyes were on a lottery pick power forward Friday night, but not the one the Warriors landed last month. Brandan Wright, fresh off two shoulder surgeries and countless questions about when he’d finally be healthy, survived 31 minutes and 29 seconds of full-contact basketball. At the time of this report, he was no worse for the wear. After these last few weeks, I’ll take whatever good news I can get.

Anthony Randolph was my favorite Warrior. As a fan-blogger, I’m allowed to have favorites. And as a fan, those favorites don’t have to be entirely logical. Randolph was a raw, frustrating and inconsistent force during his two years with the Warriors. But he was also ferocious, explosive, relentless and gifted. During his brief time on the team he made plays and changed games in ways that left a far bigger mark on my basketball memories than any box score or game log can capture. On a team long known for taking the conservative option and making the safe pick, Randolph was reckless — and I loved him for it.Continue Reading →